In the framework of the Operational Plan of Integrated Urban Development in Northwestern Thessaloniki, the Non-Governmental Organisation 'OIKOKOINONIA' conducted an information campaign to raise awareness on issues relating to social exclusion of the Roma community.  The campaign entailed the production of printed material, the creation of a website (http://www.oikokoinonia.gr), the organization of events and the production of a documentary film.  The awareness-raising actions generated reliable communication material for the promotion of a new integrated policy for social inclusion of the Roma population.

Initially, the individual dimensions of social exclusion of Roma were defined as the insufficient access to institutions and their inelastic social rights, in the following thematic areas:  a) Urban and Municipal situation, b) Accommodation - Housing, c) Health and Social Welfare,  d) Education and e) Employment and Social Security.  This is also the outline of the film - and all the communication tools - in which, however, the themes are dealt with as inter-related factors that are part of a whole, rather than in isolation.

Thereafter, the target-group was defined as the 'institutions' that provide the above-related social goods, ie. Municipalities, Social Welfare Services, Hospitals, Schools, Parents’ Associations, Vocational Training Institutions, the Manpower Services Organisation, etc. These bodies were the recipients of printed material and participants in the information events run in Northwestern Thessaloniki, particularly in municipalities with a significant Roma population.

The documentary film of 45 minutes, touches on the way in which social exclusion expresses itself in the everyday lives of the Roma, the way and extent to which this exclusion prescribes the nature of their interaction with public bodies / services and the effects on their living conditions. Also highlighted in the film is the fact that the entrenchment of the Roma community is not a 'natural condition' but a product of social discrimination and the need to survive in an increasingly hostile society. In its first public screening, at the '9^th Documentary Festival - Images of the 21^st Century 2007', in Thessaloniki, the film took the second Audience Award. Further screenings are expected in international documentary film festivals, as well as on Greek television channels, in the form of social awareness-raising 'spots'.